Wednesday, December 1, 2010

EZRA

“With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: ‘He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.”~Ezra 3:11

Rebuilding the temple.

The book of Ezra is believed to be written by Prophet Ezra as some of the books are written in the first person singular. The book of Ezra has records of events that occurred in the land of Israel at the time of the return from the Babylonian captivity and the events that took place after that. The book has detailed records of the genealogical details of the descendants of Aaron. It also emphasizes the details about rebuilding the temple.

This book reaffirms the love that God has on his own people. Whenever disaster or judgment falls, God always saves a small group for himself- We see in the the beginning how God chose Noah and his family and saved them from the flood; we see how God chose Lot’s family and brought them out of Sodom and Gomorrah; we also read about the 7000 prophets reserved in Israel despite the persecution of Ahab and Jezebel. We also read that God went to great lengths to deliver the Israelites and took them to the Promised Land. We also read about fifty thousand people who returned to the land of Judea.The Book of Ezra is about hope and restoration. God tells us that He has chosen us and we can never go far away from Him. He is a God who forgives us and loves us no matter what. As with the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, God constantly works in our lives, he never stops rebuilding encouraging and strengthening us. The opposition and the rebellion of the people at the time of temple, can be compared to the actions of the enemy of our soul. Ezra 4:2 describes the lies of those who claim to worship Christ but whose real intent is to tear down, not to build up. We have to be n guard against such people and respond to them as the Israelites did, and refuse to be fooled by their sweet talks. To read the whole book of Ezra click here.

1 comment:

Hi Sheeba,My friends call me sheeba too... Glad to know that someone who can cook is also giving the praise and worship to God. Please read my article " Honouring God with the Food"in the articles and reviews section of my blog and give me the feed back. www.hephziskitchen.blogspot.com